Space Shuttle Grounded For 3d Time In 19 Days

January 07, 1986|By United Press International.

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. — The shuttle Columbia was grounded Monday for at least 24 hours--its third delay in 19 days--because of mechanical problems that defeated a down-to-the- wire effort to launch the spaceship.

The countdown came within 31 seconds of blastoff at one point before it was halted for good after two interruptions caused by faulty fuel-control valves.

NASA officials said a fourth launch attempt was set for 6:05 a.m. Chicago time Tuesday. Air Force weather officers warned that conditions would include the possibility of rain and patchy fog in the area in contrast to the ideal conditions at launch time Monday.

If Columbia fails to get off the ground Tuesday, launch would have to be delayed until Thursday to allow time for engineers to inspect the shuttle`s main engines following their repeated exposure to supercold propellants.

It was a bitter disappointment for Cmdr. Robert Gibson and his crewmates, including Rep. Bill Nelson (D., Fla.), but they were smiling and appeared relaxed when they climbed out of Columbia`s cramped crew compartment at 8:03 a.m.

The shuttle fliers experienced a similar frustration Dec. 19 during a previous launch attempt when the countdown stopped 15 seconds before blastoff because of electrical problems. That launch attempt already had been delayed 24 hours.

The final blow came when officials in charge of the RCA television-relay satellite in the ship`s cargo bay said they had to be off by 8:47 a.m. in order to have the satellite deployed under the proper conditions. NASA did not have enough time to meet that deadline.

The $50 million RCA Satcom communications satellite is the shuttle`s principal cargo and NASA is being paid $14.2 million to launch it.

During five days in space, the Columbia crew, which also includes the first Hispanic-American astronaut, is to release the satellite, conduct more than a dozen medical, materials-processing and other experiments and make the first extensive observations from space of Halley`s comet.

Columbia`s countdown proceeded flawlessly throughout the morning until four minutes before the planned launch time when engineers stopped the countdown because a liquid oxygen propellant drain valve failed to close on computer command.

The valve was reset manually but the initial trouble allowed too much frigid liquid oxygen into the ship`s main-engine propellant inlets, dropping temperatures below allowable limits, and the countdown was stopped again.

Engineers did not give up and the countdown was recycled to the T-minus 20-minute point in the hope of getting the shuttle airborne before the day`s launch opportunity expired. But then the flight was postponed for 24 hours at the request of RCA officials.

Columbia`s flight, scheduled to end with a landing in Florida, is the first of a record 15 missions planned for 1986. The impact of Monday`s delay has not been determined.

New Hampshire social studies teacher Sharon Christa McAuliffe and six other crew members were scheduled to climb aboard the shuttle Challenger early Tuesday for a practice countdown to clear that ship for launch Jan. 23. The mock countdown will have to be delayed.

Nelson, 43, was invited to fly aboard Columbia in his capacity as chairman of the House subcommittee that oversees NASA`s budget. Sen. Jake Garn (R., Utah), who chairs a similar committee in the Senate, made the first such flight in April.

The other crew members are co-pilot Charles Bolden, Steven Hawley, George Nelson, Franklin Chang-Diaz, the first Hispanic-American astronaut, and RCA satellite engineer Robert Cenker.